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January 08, 2014

2013 Wrap Up

Another year has come and gone. I feel like I'm constantly harping on how fast the time flies, but is it just me or did 2013 go by REALLY REALLY FAST. I mean, I'm trying to look back on it and reflect on all that we experienced, and it just seems like such a blur.

We had an amazing time in the States for a little over two weeks. We spent four days in Massachusetts (Could someone please come up with an M-I-crooked letter-crooked leter-I song for MA so I don't have to google its spelling EVERY time I want to write it? Thanks.) where the girls were finally able to meet my last remaining grandparent, their 94 year old great-grandmother. It was so sweet, and although her short term memory is shot, and we had a lot of circular conversations, I hope that she's able to remember meeting them. We also spent time with my aunt and uncle who live nearby, and road tripped up to New Hampshire to see an honorary aunt and uncle.

We then flew down to Louisiana, where we did our best to split our time evenly between our families who live 45 minutes apart. We were able to see my parents, two sisters, niece and nephew, aunt and uncle, tons of old friends, and Colby's parents, brother, two grandmothers, and cousin and her family. It was such a wonderful way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday, being so grateful for such a loving group of people to call our own.

Our international flights were both fairly uneventful--the grand finale was when Charlotte barfed all over me three times about 15 minutes before we landed in Frankfurt. Poor kid. Poor guy sitting behind me. But aside from that, everything went very smoothly. The hard part was the jet lag once we returned home. It was pretty brutal for me and the girls, though Colby seemed to sleep pretty peacefully through it all!

Our house was stricken by the dreaded stomach bug the week before Christmas, putting a halt to most of our fun holiday plans. But it still ended up being a nice, quiet Christmas as we all recovered by Christmas Eve, and we were able to watch quite an onslaught of holiday movies. New Years was another quiet night at home, until around midnight when quiet went right out the window and a reenactment of the London blitz took place in our village. Miraculously, the girls slept through it all and we only had to soothe our two anxious dog beasts.

And now, here we are, a week into a brand new year. Since I didn't blog too much over the past year, I thought I would sum things up in this old questionairre I used to fill out at the end of every year. So without further ado, 2013 in review.

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?Visited a couple of brand new to me countries--The Netherlands in March and Czech Republic in June.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?I didn't make any resolutions, and I don't plan on making any for 2014 either. There are things I'd like to do, but while I'm still figuring out this ever-evolving parenting thing, we'll just see how things pan out as the year goes on!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?It was the year of babies. So many of my sweet friends near and far gave birth to sweet little bundles of joy. There was a definite uptick in the birth of twins as well. I'm such a trend setter!

4. Did anyone close to you die?Happily, I can report that we made it through a year without any deaths of those extremely near and dear. I hope for the same in 2014.

5. What countries did you visit?We took daytrips to: Worms, Germany; Bitche, France; Burg Eltz and Colmar, Germany; Bacharach, Germany; Nancy, France; Trier, Germany; a driving tour of the villages along the Rhine; Hinzert Concentration Camp in Germany; Ludwigsburgh and Hitscherhof, Germany for their Pumpkin Fests; and Rudesheim and Speyer, Germany for their Christmas markets. Our longer trips abroad were to Amsterdam and Haarlem in The Netherlands; Nice, Antibes and Monaco on the French Riviera; Nuremberg, Germany; Prague and Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic; Berlin and Potsdam in Germany; Cologne, Germany; Paris and Giverny in France; Brussels, Belgium; and 'Merica! Phew.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you didn't have in 2013?More of a sense of belonging.

7. What dates from 2013 will be etched in your memory, and why?November 1st as it was Colby's first promotion in the Air Force that required more than a pulse, and November 3rd as it was the girls' first birthday and the culmination of an incredible first year of parenthood.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year?Surviving 16 days alone with two four month olds. I wouldn't recommend it, but we all survived and came out of it sleep trained.

9. What was your biggest failure?I really wanted to get back into running more regularly, and I did well for a few months, but then fell off the wagon when we went back to the States.

10. Did you suffer illness of injury?i was lucky enough to contract both walking pneumonia and two bouts of stomach viruses this year, on top of the usual colds and allergies. Joy! Rapture!

11. What was the best thing your bought?Our travel. That's where most of our expendable income has gone over the past year and a half, and I have treasured every moment of it.

12. Where did most of your money go?We've done really well with our savings, and put a chunk away for savings for Charlotte and Annabelle that we add to monthly. Aside from that, the aforementioned travel.

13. What did you get really excited about?Charlotte growing out of her colic! Best moment of 2013!

14. What song will always remind you of 2013?Lumineers, Ho Hey. Evidently it actually came out in 2012, but whatever. I'm not cool, I'm typically about a year behind on everything. Anyway, seems like I heard it constantly, and I like to sing it to my wee ones.

15. Compared to this time last year are you a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?a) Happierb) Thinnerc) Richer

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?Blogging.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of?Facebook.

18. What was your favorite tv program?Favorite premiere in 2013... Sleepy Hollow maybe? I feel like I've watched a lot of really good shows this year, but none of them premiered in 2013. Favorite discoveries of 2013 are Scandal and The Good Wife. The most consistently amazing show on television is Parenthood.

19. What was the best book you read?I read a lot of great books last year. My favorite was probably The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

20. What did you want and get?To begin to enjoy being a mom, as opposed to just surviving it.

21. What did you want and not get?I feel pretty good about the fact that I can't think of an answer to this.

22. What was your favorite film of 2013?Saving Mr. Banks

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?I turned thirty-onederful this year! I had muffins for breakfast, lovingly prepared by my husband, then stayed home with a sick baby instead of going to a hair appointment and then getting dressed up for our squadron holiday party. Yay, mommyhood! Glamorous. We did order in from one of our favorite restaurants, and I ate two desserts. So, not bad overall.

24. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2013?Uh. Pajama pants.

25. What kept you sane?Colby. Honestly. Could not do it without him.

26. What political issue stirred you most?I'm still pretty pissed about the new budget screwing with miitary retirements.

27. Who did you miss?This list grows longer by the year.

28. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.This too shall pass. That was my answer in 2010 and it holds true now more than ever.

29. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.I suck at song lyrics, so I'll leave this one to Carrie Bradshaw:"After all, seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away."

Comments

Wow, I thought I traveled a lot with infant twins but you took it to a whole new level! I love that having 2 babies did not slow you down at all. We are flying with our babes again in March and honestly I'm scared...so far it gets harder as they get older!

Congrats on a wonderful year. I just love seeing new pics of you and your girls on facebook, and reading about how it's all going for you.